I’m going to outline current beliefs on how brands effect SEO, and how to improve your brand in a way that will effect your rankings. Keep in mind this is a new and emerging aspect of SEO. Most of this is theoretical and based of off general statements from Google and SEO experts. But before we get too deep, a bit of history is needed.

History

Since 2008, Google has been developing search results that delivers better information on brands. In a now, over-quoted statement, CEO Eric Schmidt said: “Brands are the solution, not the problem … Brands are how you sort out the cesspool.”

Around March 2009, Google’s update, called the “Vince” update, seemed to favor the big brands. We saw brands that were well known suddenly jump out of obscurity and into search engine lime light. At the end of 2009, personalized results became universal, whether you were signed in or not (I’ll explain how this effects brands later). Around April of 2010, we saw Google experimenting with displaying brands in search results. In December of 2010, it was announced that Social Media is also now being used as a ranking factor in search results (again, I’ll explain this in a bit).

Some of these changes are still noticeable today, some are less prominent or gone altogether. Regardless, you can see that Google has been trying to perfect their rankings of brands over the past several years, and there are no signs of stopping.

Impact of Changes

Clearly, no one is going to argue with branding being a critical part of any marketing campaign. Nevertheless, it does seem to get forgotten sometimes when I discuss SEO as part of that marketing plan with clients. If you want a lot of success in SEO, brands will eventually play a part. For example, let’s talk for a minute about personalized results. A part of the intent of this change was to help display brands that you recognized and clicked on more often at the top of the search results. In other words, if your visitors recognize your site, and click on it more often then other sites, you will be displayed higher in search results for those visitors. Sounds like a branding push to me.

Brands and Ranking Factors

OK, here is the meat that some of you were probably looking for. Again, I have to put my disclaimer here. These are not concrete measurements that are definitely used by search engines, but best guesses based on expert opinions:

• Domain Age
• Anchor text used in links (i.e. “click here” or “keyword” vs. “brand name”)
• Anchor text links using the domain name
• References to brand on other shopping portals, such as Amazon, or even Google Shopping
• Social Media Mentions
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Possibly others (Digg, Reddit, etc.)
• Presence on Social Media Platforms (with followers/subscribers):
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Linked-In
• Part of related government and private institutions (e.g. BBB)
• Members of the Industry Trade Organization or equivalent
• Non-link mentions and Brand Repetition (e.g. news articles, information sites, authoritative pages etc.)
  • News
  • Blogs
• Brand searches (i.e. someone searching for “Dell” or “Apple” as opposed to “laptops”)
• Online Ads (NOT paid links)
• Traditional media outlets – no really. Is there evidence that you advertise in the “real world”?
• Patents, Licenses and Government Documents
• Verified address

The How-to

Here are some ideas on how to implement some of the above principles, or to just advance your brand in general.

• Tweet. And update Facebook. Often. However, remember to not only tweet, but also tweet something worth tweeting about. There are numerous studies and examples of how one bad tweet can ruin a brand.
• Make your articles, videos or viral content easier to tweet and share. There are now a myriad of buttons and options that will make tweeting something incredibly easy and painless (e.g. AddThis).
• Link build to your site using more than just keywords. A good brand will be linked to using the brand name. Don’t get so caught up in link building with good anchor text that you forget your own brand.
• Integrate your traditional media marketing with SEO. For example, suggest in a media print ad to have someone search on your brand. This could create more searches for your brand, making a stronger suggestion to Google that you are, in fact, a brand.
• If you sell products, consider putting these into Google shopping. Also consider other portals and resources, including Amazon.
• Write press releases when possible. The better the news you have to report, the more successful your releases (and brand awareness) will be.
• Leverage existing visitors or customers. For example, in your newsletter, encourage (or provide a link) advocates of your brand to do searches on particular keywords. With the personalized searches, you’re helping to cement your place in the top spots (this also increases Click-through rates which is believed to be a ranking factor).
• Do PPC. It’s not going to directly effect rankings (as promised multiple times by Google), but it will increase your visibility and make your more trusted. In fact having PPC and SEO on the first page has shown to increase click-through rates and conversions.

Here is the final word: Brands have been on the radar at Google for a long time. Experts are starting to see more of a push towards this metric and expect for it to become a more prominent ranking factor in the near future. It’s best to pay attention and, even better, make branding an integral part of your online strategy.

Have other ideas? I’d love to hear them! Post them in the comments below.

Tags: brands and seo

Article source: http://www.seo.com/blog/brands-seo/

Clowning Around

There is a saying in the bond trading market that if you don’t know who the clown in a deal is then look in the mirror because it is probably you. Business is the same way. Almost everyone gets taken for a ride at least once.

What is Ignorance?

Ignorance is often viewed as a condescending word, but it is how we are all born. It is only through learning and experience we are able to do much more than survive. Any time you enter a new market or use a new strategy you start out from behind. You are the sucker who is losing money. Rarely does the new guy win just by showing up, or just by copying someone else’s existing strategy. There has to be some point of differentiation.

A Brutal Uphill Climb

The leader has more data, more connections, more links, more capital, higher visitor value, and the algorithms have another layer of karma built over the top of them as well. Matt Cutts described part of the Panda update as “we actually came up with a classifier to say, okay, IRS or Wikipedia or New York Times is over on this side, and the low-quality sites are over on this side.”

Roadblocks Pot Holes Are Everywhere

Based on those sorts of disadvantages, why would anyone want to try SEO? Well in almost any other business model similar roadblocks and pain points exist, and SEO allows one to build momentum over time without it being an all or nothing risk. The slow buildup can lead you toward success in ways you may not have anticipated. And the cost of failure is often little more than time. Plus you gain knowledge even when something fails.

Is SEO Really Any Different?

I think Chris Dixon is one of the smarter entrepreneurs and angle investors out there, but was disappointed to see him write a post titled SEO is no longer a viable marketing strategy for startups:

I talk to lots of startups and almost none that I know of post-2008 have gained significant traction through SEO (the rare exceptions tend to be focused on content areas that were previously un-monetizable). Google keeps its ranking algorithms secret, but it is widely believed that inbound links are the preeminent ranking factor. This ends up rewarding sites that are 1) older and have built up years of inbound links 2) willing to engage in aggressive link building, or what is known as black-hat SEO.

A similar blog headline flipped around might read like “Most VC funded companies fail founders get hosed on equity dilution, so getting funded is no longer a viable company formation strategy for startups.” Of course something like that would be laughable, but it is no less absurd than saying SEO is no longer viable.

Sure coming from behind is hard, but the above misses that

• Google has grown more aggressive in monetizing their search results through increased verticalization and navigational aids
• many of the most profitable SEO plays are reinvesting into growth
• most people who are successful with SEO do not like to attribute their success to it because doing so creates additional risks more competition

Unique Market Approaches

Even treading water in a market where competitors are reinvesting profits the market maker is tilting the table is quite respectable. If you want to come from behind and exactly clone someone else’s business model, it won’t likely be profitable. But that is why people attack markets from different perspectives. This is no different than why there are many different graphs. Chris isn’t trying to beat Google in creating another link graph, but is looking at different signals.

Tectonic Shifts in Relevancy

Likewise marketing strategies can be vastly different between different companies and different projects within a company. Certain types of pages certain types of websites rise and fall as the algorithms are adjusted to close down opportunistic loopholes. But as they make certain things harder they make other things easier. The whole content farm model was only enabled by an excessive weighting on domain authority the introduction of rel=nofollow.

That opportunity may have fallen by the wayside. Many content mills just got hit pretty hard.

Was The Pain Really That Bad?

But for all the bluster about how it was one of the biggest changes in years, most of the content farms are only down maybe 20% to 50% in terms of traffic revenues.

Sure that is a lot of revenue to disappear, but when you are operating at 80% net margins you can do that without it destroying your company. And this doesn’t even take into account that many of these sites had a clean double over the past year. So if you grow 100% then lose 50% you are still even year on year, in spite of being penalized. Not bad in an environment where tons of businesses are going bankrupt offline.

And of course those sites getting whacked create opportunity for other folks, who build sites using different strategies.

A Cautionary Tale

About a half-decade ago a CEO of a start up contacted me had us build a few links for them. Then they had to get their VCs approval for doing a full in-depth strategic review because it was going to cost well into 5 figures. Their VC investors didn’t believe in SEO!

So that killed the project.

This company had a multi-lingual site where their leading market’s content was only accessible through a drop down form where the URLs did not change. Fixing that issue to make the site crawlable would have produced more revenues in the first few months than the cost of our contract. But the VC didn’t think SEO was valuable. They never got that tip. And for businesses which have network effects built in, losing $x today can easily be $10x or $20x a few years out.

Current Market Leaders Were Yesterday’s Gray Area Marketers

Mr. Dixon also highlights how established TripAdvisor is, but when they were founded they were once the small dog just starting out. His article also fails to mention that TripAdvisor was Text-Link-Ads largest customer. In other words, they came from behind, took a calculated risk, and won. They backed off from the risks when the risks started to exceed the opportunity.

Not long after TripAdvisor started collecting consumer reviews, eHow was sold for $100,000. That turned out to be quite profitable for the buyers! And eHow was also known for aggressive spammy link building against Google’s guidelines. In fact, one of their largest competitors highlighted the lack of this information in their S1 filing:

The entire 250+ page document is devoid of any discussion of incoming links which is the cornerstone of search engine optimization. By reading through the lines, it appears that they have two primary sources for link development for their owned and operated sites: (1) from their “undeveloped websites” and (2) from their content partner sites. Although these two initiatives alone are generally not financially profitable, they are successful approaches to maximizing the incoming link equity in their owned and operated properties.

The point is that start ups shouldn’t avoid all risk, but they should pick and choose their spots. The above sites are billion Dollar enterprises because they worked in the gray area to catch up build a lead, and then pulled away from risk after they had a strong market position.

As time passes the opportunities change, but they don’t really disappear.

Article source: http://www.seobook.com/unprofitable

I was discussing webinars with the SEO team today, when Boyd Norwood, the Director of SEO, interrupted the discussion and asked me if I had seen the latest copy of Website Magazine. He opened up to page 16, which showed the results of the Top 50 Search Engine Optimization Agencies.

Website magazine writes, “In the process of selecting an SEO agency, you will find a crowded marketplace- and nearly as many social media experts. The industry is maturing and bringing new channels and opportunities for consumer engagement and revenue. This is driving traditional SEOs to adopt new approaches to acquiring traffic.” It also adds, “It is imperative that your SEO agency is ready, willing and able to serve in the age of more integrated Internet Marketing.”

Reviewing the Top 50 list, I found that four of the top seven SEO firms either had headquarters or offices in Utah. A heart-felt congratulations goes to:

BlueGlass: Ranked #4

OrangeSoda: Ranked #5

iCrossing.com: Ranked #7

Utah’s slogan is, “This is the place.” Based on these results, it is obviously the place for SEO.

Article source: http://www.seo.com/blog/utah-hub-seo-companies/

Brand new websites with huge ambitions often go after the big fish keyword when, in reality, they are sitting in a rusty, row boat with a wooden stick for a fishing pole.

Sure it’s possible to reach your goal with your elementary resources, nonexistent tools and skewed understanding of how to catch that big fish, but it isn’t likely. If you want to go after keywords that will provide a big return, do your research and invest in the right tools and resources. When you are contemplating pursuing that trophy keyword, you might want to take an in-depth look at your competitors to determine if you really measure up.

For this example, I used 3 simple tools: OpenSiteExplorer.org, SEO for Firefox and the essential Ctrl+F key. Then, I chose one of the most competitive online industries I could think of, online education. You see, when you search for “online educationâ€� or “online degrees,â€� there is a plethora of companies out there doing SEO for these keywords, which makes everything extremely difficult to rank. In this example, we’ll use the keyword “online degrees.â€�

Key Factors When Comparing Your Website to a Competitor

For the top 10 competitors that rank for this money-making term, I gathered their:

• PageRank
• Domain Age
• Page Authority
• Domain Authority
• Linking Root Domains
• Total Number of Links
• Number of Indexed Pages
• Best of the Web Listing
• Yahoo Directory Listing
• 10 Most Used Anchor Text
• Number of Root Domains and Individual Pages Linking with “Online Degrees”

I then analyzed their on-site content and looked to see if they included the keyword in the:

• Title Tag
• Meta Description
• Body of Text
• Navigation
• Domain Name

Finding Averages and Percentages from Gathered Data

To compete for the keyword “online degrees,” you need to have a similar website, backlink profile and other data to be included in those top 10 positions. To do this, I found the averages and percentages from all that data I collected above. Below is what I found:

• The average website PageRank is 6.
• The average domain age is from 2001.
• The average page authority is 73.
• The average domain authority is 68.
• The average amount of linking root domains is 1595.
• The average amount of total backlinks is 29642.
• The average amount of Best of the Web links is 2.
• The average amount of Yahoo Directory links is 14.
• 70% of the websites had a “natural lookingâ€� backlink profile. ***
• 60% of the websites had “Online Degreesâ€� as one of the top 10 most used anchor texts.
• The average amount of root domains linking to a website with “Online Degreesâ€� is 64.
• The average amount of pages linking to a website with “Online Degreesâ€� is 290.
• 90% of the websites had the keyword within their title tag.
• 90% of the websites had the keyword within their meta description.
• The average number of occurrences of the keyword within the text was 7 times.
• 40% of the websites had the keyword as a link within their navigation.
• 30% of the websites had the keyword within their actual domain name.

***I determined a natural backlink profile by looking at their top 10 most used anchor texts, and taking the following into consideration: branding anchor texts, URL anchor texts and long tail anchor texts.

Exceptions and Keeping Everything Relative

When sorting through all this data, there were some websites that stood out. Some focused on particular methods of SEO while others completely ignored other areas. In fact, despite best SEO services, some didn’t even have the keyword on their homepage. One didn’t even have it within the most crucial area, the title tag. There are so many exceptions with SEO, but to get a good understanding of what you’re going up against, you need to find the averages of these important SEO areas and set your sights on having your website compete with those averages.

When creating goals for your SEO efforts, whether it be to have a certain number of domain links, a certain number of anchor text links, or to have an increased page authority within a certain amount of time, you need to make sure it’s relative to your industry.

Don’t Quite Compete? Take Baby Steps Use the Right Tools

If you don’t have the time, money, knowledge or momentum to catch that trophy keyword, consider other keywords that are more realistic. Look at keywords in your niche where the ranked pages aren’t quite as imposing.

Like I said before, you can’t expect to catch a big fish keyword with a wooden fishing pole and without line and bait. You need the right resources to go after serious keywords. If it’s obvious that your competition has an SEO team, whether in-house or an outsourced SEO firm, you might want to do the same. If the keyword(s) you want to rank for is going to be a game changer for your business, consider investing some serious money.

Remember, You Still Need to Perform Keyword Research

If you have a handful of keywords that you’ve sorted through and deem the most valuable, keyword research is that final step to make sure your efforts aren’t going to waste. Once you’ve put yourself up against the websites that already rank, you can then determine whether you think you can get there, too.

Keep your eye on the big picture. Just because the ranked websites have a page rank of 6 or a massive amount of links, doesn’t mean you can’t outrank them. But, if the ranked sites all consistently trump you in just about every area that Google looks at to determine keyword position, you might not want to pursue that keyword quite yet.

Tags: Competitive Analysis, keyword competitiveness

Article source: http://www.seo.com/blog/measure-online-competition/

David Segal of The New York Times published “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search,” detailing how JCPenney.com used black-hat SEO to get incredible rankings.

JCPenney’s SEO firm engaged in anchor-text-based paid links, which are against Google’s terms of service. As many know, paid links can produce significant results, but risking your website rankings may not be worth it. Unfortunately, some SEO firms are clearly using this method to boost their client’s rankings, similar to the JCPenney.com disaster.

Now, the muckraking in this article is completely warranted and should happen to prevent this type of search engine manipulation. Many SEO professionals would agree using paid links to boost your rankings is unethical and can come back to burn you. But this article goes beyond this problem and makes all of SEO in general look spammy and black hat.

I’ll give the author credit, he did state, “[Google] draws a pretty thick line between techniques it considers deceptive and ‘white hat’ approaches, which are offered by hundreds of consulting firms and are legitimate ways to increase a site’s visibility.” After reading this article, however, those who are uneducated might be turned off by our profession and method of achieving search engine success.

There Are Good Guys and Bad Guys Everywhere

Just because it happened to JCPenny, doesn’t mean it’s happening everywhere. And it doesn’t mean that every SEO firm is sneaking around tricking the search engines with unethical, black-hat SEO strategies. Sure JCPenney.com gives SEO a bad name. Similarly, the officer from the classic, “don’t tase me broâ€� YouTube video gives cops a bad name. And Richard Simmons gives fitness a bad name.

There Are Great SEO Companies Out There

There are credible, trustworthy, exceptional SEO companies out there that participate in ethical, white hat SEO services that don’t violate any search engine rules.

Aiding websites to gain more visibility within the search engines is not deceptive, but it can be. If you’re company is relevant for certain terms, just like JCPenney.com was for all the terms it ranked for since they clearly offered those products, you can benefit from SEO or hiring an SEO firm. But, the problem with JCPenney.com, is it (or its SEO firm) went about it in the wrong way.

Before Hiring an SEO Firm, Question Them

An SEO company worth your while has nothing to hide. There may be some complicated details you simply don’t understand, but if the SEO person/company you’ve hired can’t give examples, explain their processes, or the end result of their efforts, that can be a red flag. Keep in mind some processes many SEO firms have can legitimately be classified as “proprietary information” and they may not tell you.

Not to toot the horn of the company that pays my bills, but SEO.com is and will always provide white hat, quality SEO services to their clients that abide by the rules of the search engines. We don’t take shortcuts, we don’t believe in paid links and we have never had a client receive a penalty as a result of our efforts. Whether it is SEO.com or another firm, make sure you are leaving your website in the hands of proven professionals.

Tags: black hat seo, JC Penney, New York Times, seo companies, SEO firm, white hat seo

Article source: http://www.seo.com/blog/seo-jcpenney-disaster/